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Khloe Kardashian Responds to Critics of Her Hipster Headdress Photos

ICTMN Staff

6/27/14

Last week, Khloe Kardashian raised hackles in Indian country when photos of her wearing a feather headdress hit the internet. She had donned the normally-sacred headwear because she thought it was appropriate for the Coachella-derived theme of "Kidchella"—a party thrown at sister Kourtney's house to celebrate the first birthday of North West, daughter of sister Kim and hip hop star Kanye West.

In the wake of the controversy, a Twitter user from Indian country contacted Khloe over Twitter, and the reality TV celebrity responded. Here's the exchange:

Lisa Votino-Tarrant@lmvotino : @khloekardashian mM husband & daughter are Shinnecock. We would love to show you the Shinnecock Museum so you can learn about our history.

Khloe@khloekardashian : @lmvotino thanku 4being 1of the ONLY people who care enough 2educate rather than threaten/attack. Ur culter is beautiful &I would love2learn

Lisa Votino-Tarrant @lmvotino : @khloekardashian Please reach out, my husband is the Asst. Curator there and he said any time that works for you :)

Will this prove to be a first step on the road to understanding—or another empty gesture from a celebrity? Time will tell. As of this writing, neither Khloe nor half-sister Kylie Jenner have removed the controversial photos from their Instagram pages.

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I do not understand how everyone is upset about the headdress thing to begin with. When did the memo go out that it was racist or insensitive to wear a Native American headdress? I have seen these sold in gift shops all over the country, and often in my own state of Arizona. I received one as a gift when I was a child, and wore it often because I thought that the Native American culture was awesome.
If this is a problem, how about bringing the problem to the attention of places like Amazon.com, etsy.com, cowboyandlady.com, or any of the other places that show up among the 303,000 hits when you type "buy native american headdress" into Google?
I think that some people need to prioritize as well. Wearing a beautiful headdress to your nieces themed birthday party is a heck of a lot less disrespectful than the thousands of "Indian Squaw" skimpy Halloween costumes that are sold and worn, or college kids getting dressed up in "war paint" and cheap costumes, mimicking dances, and hooting and hollering and getting drunk.

all of the Kardashian's is media whores they thrive off the fact that there father helped a murderer get set free then commit more crimes. they thrive off of being on tv showing the ignorance of their family. and most importantly Khloe Kardashian would not be able to tell you the 1st thing about native traditions like never wear something you dont know what it stands for and stick to your own trashy dress and ignorant ways you could never represent the native culture

OMG! Ive nvr seen ths side of Khloe b4! She is s MT-heded s I thot.
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Ironic how the Native wrote in perfect English, and the White girl wrote in gibberish.

Straxxx, and ppl like Straxxx, want to know when it became not okay to make fun of my heritage. In case you didn't know and it's obvious you don't, it was NEVER okay to make fun of or belittle my ppl. It's never been okay. It was an acceptable practice for many years, but it's never been okay. Understand? Is that in any way misleading or too hard a concept for you to grasp? I'm not being excessively rude, just a little rude, but I feel you might not get my message otherwise.
Like slavery, it too was culturally and socially acceptable. That is not okay (in case no one told you). Using the word n*gg*r in every day speech, in every day life, in every day circumstances by everyone used to be the norm as well. When did that stop being aggressively used? Yes we still hear it here and there, but you'd be hard pressed to hear it out in the open in normal day-to-day situations and you will NEVER hear it in business settings. Should we bring this grand old tradition back? I'm sorry Native Americans are making it hard for you to make fun of us. That must be rough. I know you're just beside yourself about it and probably will be truly upset for another 60 seconds about an issue that has absolutely nothing to do with you. Alas, I hope you will find the courage and capacity to move on. Just as a reminder, because I feel this probably hasn't sunk in yet (non-natives tend to forget things and need reminding it seems) - It's Not Okay To Make Fun Of Us, and yes wearing headdresses does just that. No matter the intention, it's disrespectful. We don't like it. We voted. It's the equivalent of Khloe K. wearing your grandmother's jewelry and/or wedding dress as a costume. It would be like Heidi Klum wearing a sexualized version of a Marines uniform wearing the (Congressional) Medal of Honor around her neck. Imagine that for a bit and TRY actually try to empathize.
I applaud Khloe's stance. She handled that pretty gracefully actually, good for her. But until she actually takes steps to learn more, it's just talk. At least she had the sense not to defend her garb.

Just because you've seen them sold everywhere lol They do that to make money straxxx No one cares about Natives or respects Native culture and no one teaches it or tells the truth and people that wear it are thoughtless or ignorant of the culture and history. Not just anyone can wear a head dress. Read the article on here "5 Things Educators Should Know Before Teaching Native Culture and History." It's really annoying having to explain why to everybody. All of the things you mentioned are stupid but this is a place to inform people of those things. People will do it anyway because they are narcissistic, egotistical, and selfish and celebrities and models etc.. will pose with one on to get attention and make money and actually think they look good in it. It has meaning and when everyone wears one it waters down the meaning of it and is disrespectful of the people that deserve to wear them. Those feathers are earned and people just wearing them as a costume or just because it's beautiful spread ignorance. Also a lot of ugly people will wear beautiful things because they think it increases their attractiveness and makes THEM look beautiful. These people haven't been taught that beauty comes from within so they just look like a bunch of peacocks running around strutting looking ridiculous. It's the meaning behind the feathers that makes it beautiful.